The 2013 high school football season opened with a bang for the Hilltop Lancers in their non-league game at west side rival Castle Park last Friday as the visitors put up the first 18 points in the game en route to claiming a 37-7 victory.

“It’s nice to finally get the season going after all of the hard work the players have put in the off-season,” HHS head coach Cody Roelof said. “It’s always great to start the season off with a win. The team did some things well, but also made some mistakes. We need to fix the mistakes and continue to do the things we did well.

“One of our goals is to improve every week.”

The first quarter was scoreless before the teams combined to rack up 31 points in the second quarter — 24 by the Lancers.Quarterback Daniel Sanchez led the victors with three rushing touchdowns while Montel Campbell and Bryton Madarang each scored once and Christian Sandoval returned a kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown.

Sanchez (five carries, 34 yards) scored the team’s first points of the season on a 14-yard run to ignite the second quarter scoring; he later added rushing TDs of 19 and five yards.

Campbell led all ball carriers in the game with 90 yards on 12 rushes. He scored Hilltop’s second touchdown of the game on a 24-yard run.

The Lancers generated 199 rushing yards in the contest.

Defensively, Hilltop excelled with five sacks, three fumble recoveries and one blocked punt.

Rios was also credited with a kick block while Uranga was credited with two caused fumbles. Uranga, Rios and Akers led the team with five tackles each.

The Lancers limited the Trojans to 31 passing yards and just 10 rushing yards.

Eric King completed three of 14 attempts. One was of a highlight reel variety as Mylik Steen made a superb catch at the edge of the end zone while keeping his toes in bounds.

Steen’s TD narrowed the early Hilltop lead to 18-7 but Sandoval returned the ensuing kickoff to give his team a 17-point halftime cushion.

Felipe Liborio, Robert Stretch and Angel Juarez each made a game-high six tackles in the loss. Steen and teammate Luq Barcoo each intercepted Hilltop’s Sanchez once. Liborio turned in the longest punt on the night of 45 yards.Up nextThe Hilltop passing game will need a little more fine-tuning before Friday’s home opener against Patrick Henry (0-1). Sanchez completed just two of 14 passing attempts with two picks.

Castle Park will regroup when it hosts Tijuana’s CETYS on Friday.

Kick-off for both games is set for 7 p.m.

Patrick Henry is coming off a 52-27 non-league loss against visiting Grossmont last Friday.